I-95 road rage case from 2005 ends with plea deal

Gillion Graham sentenced to 40 years for shooting death

The horror of 19-year-old Michael Reich's July 2005 road rage shooting death on Interstate 95 in Delray Beach will not be revisited during another criminal trial, as his family dreaded.

That's because defendant Gillion Graham, 27, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder with a firearm in exchange for a 40-year prison sentence.

In June, the Jamaican native and former West Palm Beach resident won the right to a new trial. The 4th District Court of Appeal tossed his 2009 conviction and sentence of life in prison.

Graham — who previously denied being the shooter — benefited from a 2010 Florida Supreme Court decision on a different case that found improper jury instructions had been used in state trial courts for the lesser crime of manslaughter.

Even without the ruling, Graham still was serving a 25-year prison sentence for aggravated battery with a firearm from the same incident. The appeals court upheld that conviction along with those for willfully discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a person and shooting into an occupied vehicle.

Assistant State Attorney Barbara Burns said Graham, with Reich's mother, father and sister watching, accepted a plea deal in advance of his planned second-degree murder trial. Circuit Judge Karen Miller approved the terms.

"He has to serve every day of the 40 years," Burns said, adding that all of Graham's sentences are running concurrently and include the time he's been serving since his arrest.

Shana Manuel, Graham's attorney with the office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel, couldn't be reached for comment Friday despite a call to her voicemail.

Reich's father, also named Michael, said the family is angry Graham could gain freedom as an older man, but they understood the reasons for the plea arrangement.

It was four years ago when they achieved some level of closure over the death of their son and brother, who had loved kayaking along the canals in his neighborhood west of Lantana and was working in a corporate office.

It took some clever police work to find and arrest Graham, considering the incident happened at 3:40 a.m. July 24, 2005, and the suspect car zoomed away with the murder weapon.

Investigators determined that Reich, driving a Ford Taurus with his friend Barbara Wallace, and Graham, in an Infiniti with three other people, were traveling northbound on the expressway when the trouble began.

While Graham was apparently drag-racing another vehicle, Graham and Reich cut each other off. Graham's friends told detectives that words were exchanged and Graham fired shots at Reich's car after Reich stuck up his middle finger, according to court records.

Reich was hit in the chest and leg, while Wallace was shot in the feet. Wallace steered the Taurus to the side of the highway and called 911. The next day a witness gave investigators their first lead, a vehicle description.

About five weeks later, authorities caught up with Graham in Wichita, Kan.